O'Shea made 35 appearances at fullback for Ireland between 1993-2000 before forging a career in rugby management.

A product of Tenure College in Dublin, he played for Lansdowne RFC and Leinster before switching to English side London Irish in 1995. He went on to make 127 first-team appearances for the club, scoring 412 points and 62 tries, before a knee injury curtailed his playing career in 2000.

He remained with the Exiles as director of rugby and guided Irish to the Powergen Cup in 2002. He later took up the role of managing director at the club before the Rugby Football Union put him in charge of their national academy in 2005 where he oversaw the development of such players as Toby Flood, Mathew Tait, Danny Cipriani and Tom Croft.

He joined the English Institute of Sport in 2008 as national director but quit his post 18 months later to join Premiership side Harlequins as their new director of rugby.

O'Shea oversaw a season of transition in 2010-11 but they finished the campaign on a high as they overcame Stade Francais in a dramatic Amlin Challenge Cup final thanks to a late try from Gonzalo Camacho.

And from the outset of the 2011-12 campaign, Harlequins were the team to beat. With Nick Evans and Chris Robshaw at the centre of everything they were doing well, Quins put together an incredible 14-match unbeaten run. They were eventually outdone by Toulouse at the Stoop but they made up for that with a spectacular triumph in France a week later.

However they went on to reach the Aviva Premiership play-offs and eventually beat Leicester Tigers in the Grand Final to become Premiershp champions for the first time.